2Samsung Galaxy Note II (T-Mobile) : Angle

The star of the show is the Note II's 5.5-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel, Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen. The aspect ratio is 16:9 this time, instead of 16:10 like the first Galaxy Note, which had a slightly higher 1280-by-800-pixel resolution. It's super-bright, with vivid colors and deep blacks, and viewing angles are uniformly excellent.

7Samsung Galaxy Note II (T-Mobile) : Left

The Note II is made entirely of plastic with the exception of the glass screen. But unlike some other Samsung handsets, it looks and feels refined, thanks to the classy, faux-anodized silver finish and a smoked chrome accent ring around the sides.

8Samsung Galaxy Note II (T-Mobile) : Right

Under the Note II's hood is a 1.6GHz quad-core A9 Samsung Exynos processor and 2GB of RAM. Android fans can rejoice, as the Galaxy Note II is the first T-Mobile handset to ship with Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" out of the box.